Adults 'must register with Ofsted' to look after children

Adults who look after friends’ children on a regular basis are being forced to
register with Ofsted under new legislation.

They must complete a criminal record check, learn first aid, take a childcare course and even follow Labour’s “nappy curriculum” for under-fives.

Officials insisted the rules were needed to safeguard children.

But the move has been branded “absurd” by campaigners who claim it represents a serious intrusion into family life.

It comes just weeks after it emerged that parents giving lifts to other children face prosecution if they fail to register with the Government’s vetting and barring scheme, a new anti-paedophile database.

Dr Richard House, senior lecturer in psychotherapy at Roehampton University, and founder of the Open EYE campaign group, said: “In any ‘couldn’t-make-it-up’ league table, this latest Government incursion into family life surely has to come very near the top.

“It beggars belief that Ofsted is now telling parents that a private co-operative arrangement whereby friends choose to take care of each others’ children is against the law. It appears that the stealthy nationalisation of childcare is now proceeding at full throttle.”

The rules were set out in Labour’s Childcare Act 2006 and, in a little-noticed move, regulations were adopted two years’ later.

Adults must register with Ofsted if they look after children for more than two hours on any one day - even if it time is split between an hour in the morning and over an hour at night. It means officials can inspect their homes to vet standards of care and ensure premises are safe. Inspections are carried out every three to four years.

Childminders must also take a course and follow the Early Years Foundation Stage – a new “curriculum” for under-fives setting out a series of targets covering literacy, numeracy, problem solving and social skills. Many official childminders have already been forced out of business after blaming the demands of the EYFS.

The watchdog said regulations covered any childcare carried out for “reward”.

“Reward is not just a case of money changing hands,” a spokesman said. “The supply of services or goods and in some circumstances reciprocal arrangements can also constitute reward.”

It could apply to neighbours regularly looking after their friend's children during the summer holidays or for several hours after school to allow parents to work.

The rules do not apply to adults looking after children in the child’s own home and does not cover "close" family members, such as grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles.

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition on the Number 10 website calling for the regulations to be scrapped.

It came after two un-named mothers were banned from looking after each others’ children. The women, who worked together, had daughters at the same time and decided to start a job share. Under the arrangement, one would look after the girls for two-and-a-half days while the other worked.

But they were shopped to Ofsted which ordered them to stop.

Ofsted said: “The law sets out that childminding requires registration where a person cares for one or more children for reward and at least one child attends for more than two hours in any one day.

“Generally, mothers who look after each other's children are not providing childminding for which registration is required, as exemptions apply to them, for example because the care is for less than two hours or it takes place on less than 14 days in a year. Where such arrangements are regular and for longer periods, then registration is usually required."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families added: “The legislation is designed to ensure that care for children away from the family home meets requirements aimed at ensuring the safety and welfare of the child. These include [criminal record] checks on adults living and working on premises where the childcare is provided.

“The legislation is proportionate - not all childcare is required to register, for example, where it is provided for only short periods of time or where it is provided in the child's own home where parents are in control of the environment.”

Vernon Coaker, the Schools Minister, said: “The legislation laid out by the Childcare Act 2006 is in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children. However we need to be sure that the legislation does not penalise hard-working families. My department is discussing with Ofsted the interpretation of the word ‘reward’.”

But Dr House added: “What the Government seems incapable of understanding is that their claim to be concerned about the declining authority of parenting is comprehensively contradicted by absurd injunctions like this one, which can only further undermine parents’ capacity to make informed decisions about their own children’s well-being.”